In Ban Bor Si Liam, northern Thailand, RECOFTC is working through RMFN–Asia to connect the village’s lac cultivation success to broader forest landscape management efforts in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ban Bor Si Liam, a village in Lampang Province, is home to a forest-based enterprise that has centred on the cultivation of lac for more than five decades. Lac, a resin secreted by scale insects of the Kerriidae family, is used in products such as dyes, varnishes and adhesives.

The village is part of the Ngao Model Forest under the Regional Model Forest Network–Asia (RMFN–Asia). Since January 2024, RECOFTC has served as the network’s secretariat and is working with participating communities to strengthen strategic collaboration and share best practices on sustainable forest landscape management across the Asia-Pacific region.

Bor Si Liam is emerging as a model for community-led forest stewardship and sustainable enterprise development. Through RMFN–Asia, we are supporting local dialogues and helping explore strategies to adapt the lac enterprise to climate change and engage younger generations in forest-based livelihoods.  

“We’ve been successful,” says village head Worawut Chaisuksrisongfa, referring to the business, which generates around USD 540,000 in annual income for the village’s 100 households. “Now the question is how we keep going.”

The Ngao Model Forest Association has received funding from the government of Canada through the International Model Forest Network (IMFN) to conduct participatory action research focusing on lac and other non-timber forest products. As secretariat of RMFN–Asia, RECOFTC co-developed the research agenda. Currently, we are co-designing activities to support the expansion of lac cultivation as a nature-based solution in other forest landscapes.  

These efforts are part of wider regional learning under RMFN–Asia, which includes eight Model Forests across China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand.